Officials 'asleep' on nursing care

Date: February 13 2013

Rachel Browne and Vince Chadwick

AGED-CARE advocates fear criminals are exploiting a legal loophole to gain control of nursing homes without undergoing background checks.

Consumer group Aged Care Crisis has questioned how Melbourne businessman Stephen George Snowden, a convicted criminal and former bankrupt, managed to gain control of five Victorian nursing homes through his company, Cambridge Aged Care.

It has repeatedly warned the Department of Health and Ageing that criminals can acquire nursing homes without scrutiny as long as the centre already had approved status and the appointed managers did not have a criminal history.

Mr Snowden was facing a charge of obtaining financial advantage by deception in 2011 when he became director of Berkeley Living Group Pty Ltd, offering retirement living and aged care. He later pleaded guilty to that charge.

Berkeley Living Group was placed into administration last year, before Mr Snowden became director of Cambridge Aged Care. Mr Snowden has previously denied any wrongdoing in relation to Cambridge.

On Tuesday, inspectors from the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency made an announced visit to one of the homes in the Cambridge Group, Rosewood Mews in Greensborough, which is home to 35 residents.

An agency spokesman said heightened monitoring of all Cambridge nursing homes had been in place for ''some months''.

Fairfax Media revealed on Tuesday that Jack Smit, former business partner of underworld figure Tony Mokbel, has an interest in one Cambridge Aged Care home, Woodhaven Lodge, in Croydon North.

It has also been alleged that Mr Snowden received $1.8 million in payments from the nursing homes' trust account.

Dr Michael Wynne, a retired surgeon and lobbyist for Aged Care Crisis, said nursing home staff were under more scrutiny than their owners.

''While nursing staff are barred if they have criminal records, the suitability and criminality of owners is regarded as irrelevant,'' he wrote in a letter on the Aged Care Crisis website. ''Nurse aides receive more scrutiny so we must assume that they are seen as a greater threat.''

Ms Saltarelli said more scrutiny was applied to people applying to run restaurants, pubs or bottle shops.

The Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association of NSW raised concerns about the Department of Health and Ageing's background check on owners.